Byzantine: Shanxi's Last Stand
by LeroyZanzibar
Summary: In the year 2157, the First Contact War began. Despite the Alliance's surrender of the planet, only one unit refused the order and held the city of Byzantine for the month the war lasted. This is their story.


_Author's note: This has a small tie-in regarding my other story, "Mass Effect: Friend of a Hero". Since I mentioned it, I figured that I would throw this in as a reference. I made this awhile ago and honestly ran out ideas for the rest of it. I tried to do a model after 300 and The Last Samurai. It was a fun little bit to do. If there was any song I could think of that would fit perfectly with this story, it would be Chevelle's-Bend the Bracket. Great song._

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, Bioware does. I just own the OC's._

* * *

**Byzantine: Shanxi's Last Stand**

**Prologue**

**2157- First Contact War (Relay 314 Incident)**

In the year 2157, humanity had encountered another race in the galaxy. It didn't turn out the way they had expected. In an attempt to activate a dormant mass relay, Systems Alliance ships were attacked by an unknown alien force. Only one ship had returned to Shanxi, one of the first colonies outside of the solar system. However, this alien force had tracked the ship and began to attack the colony relentlessly.

Before General Williams surrendered Shanxi, only a handful of Alliance troops remained outside the capital. Inside the capital, civilians and troops were starving to death and supplies were cut off. The turians were systematically destroying cities and towns from orbit and on the ground with their "total war" tactics, virtually demoralizing the civilian population and garrison forces. Despite the rapidly deteriorating situation, one unit rose above the circumstances and became heroes. That unit was the 4th Alliance Infantry Unit, A Company, known as the "Titans" headed up by Operations Chief James "Ironman" Hughes. Hughes was one of the toughest soldiers in the only 9 year old Alliance Military. Formerly with the USMC Force Recon, he was one of a handful of NCO's that had seen actual combat and was highly decorated. His service with the Alliance was no different. The A Company Titans fought ferociously during the brief First Contact War and were instrumental in the Battle at Byzantine, the only city not captured by the turians before the Shanxi garrison fell. Their actions won the respect of not only the Alliance and Humanity, but also the Council races. This is their story...

* * *

**A Company Garrison outside Byzantine (Day 10 0946 Local Time)**

For 10 days, Byzantine and several other towns and the capital were bombed relentlessly from orbit by an unknown alien force. The only orbital support the garrison forces had were nothing more than scouts and patrol fleets. Despite their best efforts, they were destroyed over the skies of Shanxi giving these aliens supremacy from orbit. Most of the satilites were destroyed so most communication had to be taken care of by landline and runners. For "Ironman" Hughes, this was something he had never encountered in his 20 years as a soldier. A Company had sustained heavy losses from the orbital bombardment and was down to only 16 troops from the 30 or so stationed at the garrison. Byzantine was a small, but growing city in Shanxi's lush grasslands so it did not need as many troops as the capital. However, troop morale was low. Most of A Company was decimated, civilians were dying all around them and alien troops were rumored to be touching down within a few hours. Hughes had been hardened by combat over the years but was placed in a new situation along with his troops. He had family here on Shanxi, and found out yesterday that they were killed in the bombings. He wasn't the only one and despite feeling torn up inside, Hughes wasn't thinking about himself but thinking about one of the young rookies on his team. Corporal Arnold Speyer was 19 and had lived on Shanxi longer than anyone in the company; most of his extended family lived here and they were also killed in the orbital bombardments. He hadn't spoken since he found out 2 days ago when they started to bomb the planet. Everyone was worried that he would snap somehow. Hughes and the rest of the unit were huddled inside the remains of a diner, watching fireballs erupt from the nearby town of Upham. Hughes moved from his spot near the doorway over to the counter where Speyer was, "Hey kid. How are you holding up?"

"Five by five, sir."

"You sure soldier?"

"Yes sir."

"Get some sleep kid. You've been watching the door since yesterday morning." "Ok. Thank you sir." To everyone, Speyer seemed like some lanky, blonde headed, kid that would get knocked over by a stiff breeze. But since he found out that his family had died, he changed.

_The kid's probably got shellshock_. thought Hughes, _Can't say I blame him_. He pulled out a family picture of his wife, son, and daughter, who were all killed less than 24 hours ago. Hughes looked at it briefly and placed it back into his pocket and glanced over at Corporal Milton Altman who was trying to activate the radio.

"God damn it! I can't get Central Command on the line. Don't tell me the cut that too."

"Calm down Milt. They're probably flooded at the moment with all the radio traffic coming in." said PFC Akira Nakamura, the unit engineer.

"Or maybe you should try turning it on." said Hughes. Sure enough, Altman forgot that the radio was off and flipped it on. Akira gave him a shit-eating grin to which Milton responded with a middle finger.

"_Attention all units this is Central Command. We have ascertained the identity of the invaders. According to intercepted transmissions, they are an alien species called Turians. Other details about them are sketchy but we have reports of troop landings approximately 30 miles from the capital. Orders are to engage at will; if it doesn't look human, kill it. As of now, we cannot reach Alliance Command. Do not expect air support. Central out_."

"What's a turian?" asked Akira.

"No idea." said Milton. The explosions from Upham were starting to grow louder as they approached Byzantine. Upham was a small town about 10 miles away.

"Fucking hell." Said First Sergeant Luis Rodriguez, "Isn't that where F Company was stationed?"

"Yeah." Said PFC Ken McNamara.

"Division this is A Company. Requesting a sitrep!" Altman said into the radio.

"_A Company this is division. You're the only company that we've been able to get in touch with. Company's B through E have been destroyed. You're the only ones left."_

"What about F Company?" asked Hughes.

"_F Company has reported heavy losses and are pulling back."_

"Orders?"

"_Hold your positions. Keep them out of the city at all cost." _

Speyer was woken up by the radio and asked, "They coming this way Chief?" "Sounds like it kid. Listen up guys, expect enemy ground forces and remember: if it bleeds, we can kill it. Lets go Titans!" said Hughes rallying the men to get up as drop ships began to touchdown at the city limits. He pulled out his binoculars and looked over at their landing zone, on the outskirts of Upham.

"Hmm. They seem pretty orderly." he said, watching row after row of alien soldiers walking out of their drop ships. The distant boom of artillery echoed from above, "Everybody down!" yelled Hughes as the turians air support began to bomb Byzantine again.

"They're gonna land!" yelled First Sergeant Luis Rodriguez. After 10 minutes of shelling, the ships stopped bombing the city to pave way for the landing troops.

"I say we give 'em a welcoming party! Once they land, let it rip boys!" said Hughes. The dropships landed over 300 yards from the A Company garrison and were beginning to offload troops.

_Game on turians._

_

* * *

_

**Frontline Command Center of the 34th Legion outside Byzantine (Day 23 1200 Local Time)**

For over 3 weeks, the turians had hit the city like the hand of God. What used to be large buildings was nothing more than rubble, steel, and glass. The bodies of turian soldiers had piled up outside the city, a good distance from the main garrison. A Company had held together despite a few non-critical wounds and lack of sleep. Other cities and towns across Shanxi had been captured or razed by the turians as they continued their march towards the capital. However, there was a thorn in their side. That thorn happened to be a small unit of infantrymen holding the last city before the capital. General Lucius Valerianus, commander of the 34th Legion and Commander of the ground forces, had attempted to take the city of Byzantine for nearly 3 weeks but to no avail. Air support had little to no effect against the garrison as it was well fortified and dug into several craters. Armor and could not move into the city due to the narrow roads and debris which had formed a bottleneck between the Legion's encampment and the garrison. The only way to effectively attack was by using infantry and artillery. However, over the last two weeks the 34th had taken significant losses, over 200 dead, and their artillery had been destroyed or sabotaged by these alien forces. General Valerianus looked over the battlefield from the rear base overlooking the battle-zone. He would be turning 63 this year, and decided that it would be his last year serving in the military. The general had served for over 40 years, helping put down various rebellions, pirate attacks, and potential wars. Despite all of that, he had never found himself in a situation such as this. He was going up against a species never before encountered, but seemed to be on par with them technologically.

"Lieutenant Maximus, what is our current status?"

"General our forces are preparing to use brute force attacks to distract the garrison while another squad sneaks in to ambush and finish off the rest."

"I see. Who ordered that attack?"

"Major Rugara, sir."

Valerianus shook his head, "Tell him to pull them back and reorganize and to wait for the damn artillery barrage." The sudden boom of the artillery sounded in the distance as the only remaning guns fired into the city. Over the radio, sounds of NCO's shouting at command to stop firing came in along with casualty reports. "I'm sorry General. He-"

"Nevermind Lieutenant." It would continue to be another long and annoying day for General Valerianus. If there was anything he could take pride in, was that the enemy had once again stopped his brave soldiers for the 23rd straight day. He went over the recon reports that said there were only 16 soldiers protecting the city.

"Sixteen men against an entire Turian Legion." he said to himself, "Those are some brave bastards." Major Rugara was an incompetent officer who was assigned to Valerianus by the Hierarchy Military Command. He was the son of a senator on Palaven and had been sent to the 34th Legion to "get experience". It wasn't the first time Valerianus had dealt with nepotism in his career. Luckily, it would be the last time. Most of the people sent to him who had political connections were quickly transferred out as Valerianus had no tolerance for them.

"Lieutenant, get Major Rugara over here."

"Yes sir."

General Valerianus went over the various reports from other Legions that had landed on Shanxi; they had fared well on the ground despite heavy resistance. Most of the major cities had fallen except for one, Byzantine. The leader of the Systems Alliance forces stationed here, General Williams had surrendered several hours ago. Their garrison forces had been overwhelmed, supplies were cut off and they had sustained heavy military and civilian losses. The forces stationed here however, were aware of the surrender order but had refused to lay down their arms. The turian higher ups considered Byzantine to be the gateway to the rest of the major cities. Despite the surrender order, there was still sporadic resistance. If Byzantine fell, then the turians could regroup and take the rest of the cities with general ease. However, the city sat on a high hill and had a river that crossed the south. The south entrance also featured a large 5 and a half mile bridge that connected to the capital.

"You wanted to see me, General?" said Rugara who had just walked in.

"Major what the hell were you thinking?"

"Excuse me sir?"

"You told your platoon to assault the city despite the order I gave not to."

"Sir, we need to take that city from those damn vermin!"

"You sent them into the artillery unit's targeting range! You cost the lives of dozens of our soldiers and disobeyed a direct order."

"General-"

"I don't want to hear anymore excuses. This is 4th time in 2 weeks that you've done this. You're relieved of duty."

"How dare you sir! Do you have any idea who I'm related to?"

"I do Major and you're relieved of duty. Get him out of here Lieutenant." Rugara was removed by Lieutenant Maximus and 2 other soldiers and sent away. As if there were enough problems going on, thought Valerianus.

* * *

On the other side, Chief Hughes and the men were celebrating another turian defeat. Despite General Williams issuing the surrender order, A Company held their ground and refused to surrender. At the same time, they were also coming up with a plan to eliminate the air threat posed by the turians. Nakamura had devised a plan to take an anti armor rocket and fire it into the atmosphere. However, this rocket would be armed with pulse mines that would jam their orbital bombardment units and aerial recon units. It would take a few days and good amount of element zero but it could be done. At the same time, they would also make a plan to make another similar rocket to disable their ground weapons. After several weeks of fighting, they learned that the turians weapon technology was similar to their own. The firing mechanisms of their small arms used electrical pulses to send the mass accelerator rounds out of the weapons. If they could develop some sort of jamming device to disable their weapons, they could have a decent shot to hold out for reinforcements. B Company would have to work fast though as the turians were bringing reinforcements to take Byzantine.

* * *

**A Company Garrison outside Byzantine (Day 30 1600 local time)**

A Company's plan to disable the turians air power had succeeded. They launched their crude, anti armor rocket; armed with tech mines and a large quantity of element zero to make it out of the atmosphere. Within minutes, the orbital strikes on the remains of Byzantine had stopped and A Company had celebrated their seemingly improbable victory. General Valerianus was stunned. Within a week, the rest of the 34th's artillery had been sabotaged or had succumbed to mechanical failure. This resulted in their inability to bombard the garrison and take out the remaining forces. On top of that, the launch of their crude EMP rocket had disabled their orbital strikes, including their drone support eliminating their air superiority over Byzantine. There was only one way to take the city and it would not be easy. Since General Williams surrender, A Company had been relentless in striking back at the Hierarchy. Even as a captive, General Williams told the turian commanders in charge that they would refuse his orders, no matter what happened. Chief Hughes also had another trick up his sleeve. The EMP rocket they launched also contained an Alliance distress beacon, which transmitted through the nearby mass relay. With any hope, reinforcements would be on the way. If not, Hughes was prepared to make one final stand. As the turians ground forces began to mass around Byzantine, A Company placed land mines in and around the city; they split the company up, one would watch over the 34th, the second team would watch the forces coming from the capital. There were murmurs over the wire that the turians were amassing more forces in preparation for a counterattack against the Alliance.

Before Hughes prepared his squad for its final stand, he pulled Private Arnold Speyer aside, "Kid, I don't want you getting involved in this op."

"Why sir?"

"You're too young to throw your life away."

"Sir, I want to stay here and fight."

"I don't want the death of some 15 year old on my conscience."

"But I'm not-"

Chief Hughes knew that Speyer lied about his age when he joined up. "Trust me kid. I know. Now listen, I want you to take this message to General Williams." he said, giving Speyer the message. "Let them know what we did here."

"Yes sir. Good luck." he said and began his long walk to the capital. Good news did arrive for the Titans, as a special ops team that had made their way from the capital arrived at Byzantine. The unit was known as "Task Force 1". Most of their history and operations were top secret, but what was known about them was the stuff of legend. A 6 man unit comprised of the best EOD experts, snipers, and survival experts, they escaped from the capital and spent nearly a month to get to Byzantine. It was rumored that Task Force 1 wasn't part of the Alliance Military but in fact a covert unit from the Alliance Intelligence Bureau. The man in charge was a young man by the name of Joesph Sears, a Second Lieutenant.

"Who's in charge here?" asked Sears.

"I am sir. Operations Chief Jim Hughes."

"Good to meet you Chief, we've heard a lot about your unit. You've certainly gained the attention of the turian military." He said, shaking Hughes' hand.

"That so?" said Hughes sarcastically.

"They're bringing every piece of armor and artillery they have from the capital." "Yeah. We set mines down the highway; shouldn't be a problem. You here to take over sir?"

"No, just here to help. What's the situation?"

Hughes went over everything. They had planned to take their last junk rocket and fire it up in the air. Once it exploded, it would shut down the turians weapons systems giving them enough time to rush across the field to take them on in close quarters at their forward command. The second team would focus on destroying as much of the armored units as possible to create a giant roadblock for the rest of their armored division since the highway was the only way to get in from the capital. It was a risky plan, but A Company was on its last legs in terms of supplies and heavy weapons ammunition. TF1 would take top cover and pick off any turians caught in the open and set explosives on the highway.

"Chief! We've got incoming armor from the south!" radioed PFC Nakamura.

"Hold your positions! Wait for them to hit the mines!" yelled Hughes. "Sniper team are you ready?"

"You got it Chief." said Sears who was on top of a large parking garage with Gunnery Chief Charles Murphy and Gunnery Chief Semeyon Zengin.

The sound of a massive boom echoed throughout the city, "Sir! The tanks have hit the minefield!"

"That's our cue! Light it up Rod!" said Hughes as First Sergeant Rodriguez launched the last remaining rocket into the sky.

"Safety's on!" The EMP rocket wouldn't affect weapons systems that were already off. The rocket flew up into the air at a rapid pace; the turians were trying to fire at it to make it explode but it was too small to be hit.

"What's the altitude?"

"5,000 feet, chief!"

"Once it gets to 10,000 feet, detonate it. How much time before their weapons come back on?" said Hughes as the team made its way to the outer wall of the garrison and bunkered down inside an artillery crater.

"We've got 3 minutes until they can use their weapons again." Rodriguez said, "Its at 10,000 sir!"

"Hit it!" A small shockwave lit up the sky and the turians weapons stopped firing all at once. "Lets go Titans!" yelled Hughes as they sprinted forward, guns blazing.

"Sniper team, engaging." said Sears as they began to pick off the turian soldiers in front.

Hughes thought to himself, _I can't believe its come to this, a suicide run on an enemy base. Helluva day to die_.

They continued forward at a rapid pace. The turians had no idea what was going on with their weapons and had shown something rarely seen in turian armies: fear.

* * *

From the other side, Valerianus saw eight men charging across an open field about a mile and a half long. Their faces showing an unusual confidence despite making a suicide run at them. "Fire! Fire at them damn it!" yelled Valerianus.

"Our weapons systems are offline, general! They've somehow deactivated them temporarily."

"Fight back at them! Go!" Hughes noticed the turians were now charging directly at them, hoping to club them or engage in hand-to-hand combat. It was a bold move despite the fact that they had loaded weapons and snipers backing them up. They were less than a quarter mile away when Rodriguez yelled, "Thirty seconds!" It wasn't enough time for them to get to the base. The end was in sight...

* * *

When the turians weapons reactivated, it was a massacre. The sniper cover had stopped around the thirty second mark as TF1 fell back. The second team fighting against the armored units on the highway were obliterated. However, they were successful at stopping the armor from reaching the city by destroying a large section of the bridge leading into Byzantine. Valerianus had ordered his troops to cease-fire after the last humans fell. He had seen many terrible things in his military career, but they had never fazed him the way this attack did. He walked slowly up to the front of the camp where the turians were checking the bodies of 6 of the 8 men who charged at them. All six were dead. Meanwhile, about 5 feet inside the inner wall of the turian camp lay Operations Chief Hughes and First Sergeant Rodriguez. Both were badly wounded, Hughes had taken over 6 shots to the chest and arms. Rodriguez had been critically wounded in his lower abdomen by a shotgun blast. "Sir..." he coughed.

Hughes slowly turned his head to him, "Yeah, Luis?"

"The fleet...they…they made it. We did it." he said, blinking slowly until he stopped breathing. Hughes swallowed hard and looked up into the sky and hearing the sounds of radio chatter from the nearby tent.

"We did it…" he said.

A turian soldier came walking over and took a knee next to Hughes and waved over to his comrades. Three of them came over, one looked like an officer. He had several hash marks and what appeared to be ribbons representing medals on his uniform. They were speaking in a language he had never heard before. _Hm. Look a lot uglier up close_. thought Hughes.

* * *

"General! Over here! We found one alive." said Lieutenant Maximus.

"Medic!" said Valerianus. They approached this human and seemed fascinated. "Hm. Can we tell who he is?"

"If their military is like ours, they might have some form of identification." said Maximus. Maximus checked this soldier still breathing and saying something in an unknown language.

"Here General." he said taking one of his ID tags.

"Hm. Have we been able to decipher this language?"

"Most of it sir. Uploading to your translator." General Valerianus read his ID tags and looked at the soldier, "You are Operations Chief James Hughes. Serial Number 0084389. Correct?"

He was too weak to give much of an answer but raised an eyebrow and nodded. "We are taking you to a medical facility to treat your wounds. You are now our prisoner." Hughes didn't say anything and turned away, looking up into the sky watching the air battles taking place. As a few NCO's carried Hughes away, Valerianus went back into the command tent for an update, "What's going on?" "The human fleet has arrived and their sending reinforcements to the planet." "Any word from the armored units from the capital?"

"They were stopped. The bridge into Byzantine was destroyed along with the vanguard forces that went in."

Valerianus shook his head in disbelief, "All of them?"

"I'm afraid so sir."

He let out a sigh, "Well, I shouldn't really be surprised. With their reinforcements arriving, we should prepare for a ground fight."

"General, should we move into Byzantine?"

"No. We'll move into the mountains to get a better view of the area."

"General, we still have to secure the city."

"Lieutenant Maximus, we couldn't take it. Their forces will come soon and we will have the advantage and the high ground. They'll likely bring everything they have to take the city. Besides, I don't think we could hold the city as long as our enemies have."

"I understand sir."

"Prepare to move out." said Valerianus.

* * *

**Field Hospital of the 34th Legion, 20 miles outside of Byzantine (Day 32 1000 hours local time)**

Here I was, holed up in some turian hospital. Now I was their prisoner and probably some experiment. Great, now I'm thinking of some science fiction movies. Their doctors were trying anything to "help" me. From what I could gather, we were different than turians physically. They were a dextro protein based species unlike us and had blue blood. Despite being on the level with us on a technological level, they couldn't do anything to help me other than keep me stable. It didn't bother me. My bags were packed. I was ready to go. I was the only one left now, the only survivor from A company. I laid here in this bed looking around at all the other soldiers like me in their beds, asleep or trying to find ways to fight the pain they were in. I wasn't kept separate, but everyone was looking at me; even the doctors and nurses seemed a little on edge with me being here but they never said anything about it. I guess their military training follows them everywhere. That general who found me would stop by on occasion to check in on me. I never understood why and I never said a word to him. Today though, I wasn't feeling so well. It felt like my time was coming up. The general came by to check in on me.

"Chief Hughes." he said as I laid in my bed staring straight ahead.

"I can understand if you don't feel like talking. After what you have been through..."

"You don't understand a god damn thing." I said, taking the general off guard.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, _general_, you don't understand a god damn thing." He sat there with the same blank expression he had on his face when he came in.

"You bastards killed my whole family. My wife, my son, my daughter. I had guys in my unit who lost more than that. One kid, who lied about his age, lost his parents, siblings, and grandparents. You attack us without any good reason and decide to kill every living being here and not expect any resistance? You've opened up a can of worms that you can't slam shut."

"We were doing our duty."

"That's the best you can do? Hmph. A general calling genocide a duty. If you're looking for forgiveness, you're not getting it. I'll never forgive you or your people. We'll take our home back and drive you back to the ass end of the galaxy where you belong." He got up from his seat and proceeded to leave, saying nothing.

I started coughing up blood, "Looks like its time to go." I said to myself.

* * *

I was not surprised by Hughes' response to us. We had attacked a species that didn't know we existed. I'll admit, even I was disgusted by our actions. The Hierarchy central command had never given us such explicit orders before; not in the 40 years I had served. We destroyed entire cities, killed civilians and children. Why would the humans forgive us? I never said it to Hughes but I had planned to nominate him with the Hierarchy Star cluster award, our highest military award. He had kept us from capturing the last "free" city on this world for a month. As I headed down the hall, a medical alarm had gone off, a code blue. I had turned around and looked down the hall and saw several orderlies around the bed where Hughes was. They had tried their hardest to save him but couldn't. Our doctors didn't know human anatomy. All they could do was keep him stable until the end. They made the call and left. I walked back to the ward and looked at him. His eyes fixed upward, in a blank but pained expression. In his hand was a family picture.

"Oh. Excuse me, General Valerianus." said Captain Verinius, the chief medical officer of our legion.

"Doctor. Leave him here."

"Sir?"

"We're pulling out of here. Let his people bring him home."

"Yes general." I headed back down the hall to gather my men. The Alliance military was coming we would fight them off for now, but evac would be difficult since our fleet was outmatched after a surprise attack. Personally, I wanted to get off this planet as soon as possible. I was tired of dealing with the Hierarchy and having to force such brave men and women into a losing battle.

_I don't think they'll ever forgive us for this._ I thought to myself,_ I don't blame them. This was the wrong thing to do._

* * *

**Capital of Shanxi (Day 33 1330 local time)**

PFC Arnold Speyer

It had been 3 days since Chief Hughes told me to report to General Williams. In that time, I had wandered from Byzantine to the capital, dropping my weapons to avoid getting shot by accident. I was tired of killing at this point anyway. By the time I reached the capital, I learned that Admiral Kastanie Drescher had arrived with the fleet and launched a surprise attack against the turian fleet orbiting above. Shanxi was liberated in only a few days time. It wasn't all good news though. Intel had reported that the turians would bring anything and everything to Shanxi for a massive counter attack. I didn't hear any news out of Byzantine as there was some fighting still going on. However, since I left the city, I had assumed that my squad was dead already. Once inside the capital, I asked around for the location of General Williams. He was still inside the command post being debriefed when I came in.

"General. We got a private here who says he's with the 4th Infantry out of Byzantine."

The general turned around and came up to me, "What's your name kid?"

"Private First Class Arnold Speyer sir! I'm with the 4th Infantry, A Company sir." "You were with A company?"

"Yes sir. Chief Hughes sent me here to deliver these messages sir." I said, giving him over a dozen letters from the remaining group in Byzantine.

The general looked them over and looked up to me. "Thanks Speyer. Unfortunately, I have some bad news." I was expecting him to say this since I left days ago.

"We found the bodies of your unit. You're the only survivor left kid. I'm sorry."

"Its ok, sir."

"But…From what we were told by one of our special ops units that ran into A company, they prevented the turians from ever capturing the city. Our fleet came in with reinforcements after they charged the turians forward command center." He paused for a moment and said, "You're company is going to recieve a unit citation from the President himself. You're gonna get a medal too kid. Congratulations." he said saluting me.

"Thank you sir." A great weight had lifted itself from my shoulders. It was over as far as I was concerned. But a lot of good people died. I just hope it was all worth it.

* * *

**Epilogue**

For a month after Shanxi was liberated, the Turian Hierarchy prepared for full scale war against the Systems Alliance. The Citadel Council became aware of this and intervened before hostilites escalated. As a result, humanity had been introduced to the galactic community and struck a peace treaty with the Council and the turians. Humanity was put into a galactic stage where they were seen as bullies and warmongers by other races but were also well received by the galactic community. In order to quell this reputation, they decided to begin colonizing other systems in order to gain some political power with the Council. Since the First Contact War, humanity and the turians had a cold peace with neither side showing any trust in the other despite the peace treaty in place. But the story of the struggle in Byzantine made both sides have a moment of pause. It wouldn't be until Commander Shepard saves the Council in 2183 that both humanity and the turians gain each other's respect and admiration.

-PFC Arnold Speyer was honorably discharged from the Alliance military and would enroll at Harvard University. He graduated with a Masters in English and a B.A in Galactic politics. Speyer wrote a best selling book called "Byzantine: The Last Stand" and helped write "The Real Heroes" with General Lucius Valerianus. They are both collaborating with a famous asari vid director to make a movie about Byzantine.

-General Lucius Valerianus retired from military service after the First Contact War. He made several requests to have Operations Chief James Hughes honored with the Hierarchy's Star Cluster award on numerous occasions for his bravery and courage. He also wrote a best selling book called, "The Real Heroes" which criticized the military's policy of total war. Despite being criticized by the Hierarchy, his book was hailed by the galaxy; even by turian councilor Valern. He and Arnold Speyer co-wrote the book and became good friends afterwards.

-General Jack Williams was court marshalled for surrendering the garrison at Shanxi. He quietly retired and worked construction in the colonies for the rest of his life. To this day there are attempts to get him exonerated.

-Operations Chief James "Ironman" Hughes was posthumously given the Star of Terra, the Alliance Military's highest honor. His body was found at a field hospital outside Byzantine and buried at the Byzantine National Cemetery. He was also later awarded the Hierarchy's Star Cluster award for his actions.

-A memorial stands at the center of Byzantine honoring the troops who protected the city. To this day, it is the only city to have never been taken by alien forces. The names of the 30 men and women of A Company are on a plaque on the memorial statue.


End file.
